This world is inhabited by creatures that we call pokemon. People and pokemon live together by supporting each other, but now the scourge threatens the safety of the entire region. Kohaku has become a dangerous place, where children stay at home and only brave souls go adventuring.
Welcome to KOHAKU. Come for the nightmares. Stay for the tea and crumpets.
The season is SUMMER. It is easy for survivors to forage for food from the land, as there are entire abandoned farms ready for harvest. On the downside, you can smell the corpses.
swarms
GRAND OPENING !
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iskander seemed solemn, and glanced down at the blackened grass. his smile gradually curved his lips again, and it was almost a melancholic one, a sad one as he looked at neo. "you're right," he said, in a voice soft, but audible. "she killed my pokémon. you don't need to be with eos to own a pokémon."
he tilted his head, and showed her a cut under his jaw. "this is where she clocked me," said iskander, drawing a line to follow the scar. "she looks like a man, hits like one, too," he said, still wearing the smile. he didn't seem to like talking about cameron; it was for reasons that hades agents knew -- he wasn't devoted to the job, but he hadn't betrayed them either; cameron was completely devoted to the job and wouldn't let him slack.
"she beat me. not fairly and squarely, though."
he fingered the scar, then stopped. it didn't look good doing so. he slipped his hands into his suit pockets, and looked at neo. "this is the first time i've told this to someone. i'm too afraid of what my parents would say if i told them what happened, that i'd lost my pokémon in a fight they'd never approve of."
She wanted to keep her distance. In fact, she wanted to leave--say, hey, thanks for the potion, brother--and high tail it out of here. She survived the scourge attacks because she knew when to run, and right now, everything was telling her to run and to never look back.
Instead she took a few steps closer, bridged the distance between them again. "I'm sorry," she said as atonal as ever. "The scourge has been hard on us all."
Words. Condolences. She'd heard them too many times, said unto her, said by her, they didn't mean much anymore. Defeating the scourge was the only thing that mattered. Words wouldn't set anything right. They'd already served their purpose. They soothed the pain at first, but by now, they'd been judged and found wanting.
She reached out to him, standing closer now--perhaps too close. She reached out a hand to brush the scar on the jaw, then suddenly pulled back, as if realizing that she'd invaded all things resembling a personal bubble.
Her hand was still in the air, raised delicately, gently. "I have some medical expertise--may I?"
iskander wouldn't have minded if neo left him to his own devices. he wouldn't have minded if neo had left, either, but he thought that he preferred the way she continued to sustain the conversation even without putting emotions into her words. there was something pretty human about that. he'd given a circumstance, a situation of a person in need, and what did you know, the other person in the conversation stayed behind for just another moment more.
the agent didn't know what else to say, except nod slowly. a slight sadness crept into his smile; yes, there was regret too, tugging at the edges of his eyes whenever he smiled like that. he was iskander, the man whose pokémon was killed by cameron, and he'd gotten physically assaulted by her, too. he backed up when neo approached him and closed the distance, and looked into her eyes, almost freezing at the physical contact when she brushed the scar along his jaw.
it still hurt, sometimes. why, he didn't know. it was strange. maybe it was because he needed to believe in her world a little more; but looking at neo, he wondered if he'd picked the wrong side to see to the end.
"yeah," he said, turning away, but tilted his head so that she could look at it. "it's fully healed now, right? my mom used to tell me not to eat seafood if i have a cut, or it'd get infected and leave a scar. that night, i ate crawdaunt sashimi, and i guess it caused this? i don't know."
"It's hard to imagine you with a mother. Had any siblings?" she asked, because at this distance, the resemblance was too much to simply ignore.
She examined the wound, fingers gliding over it in a gentle, even loving, caress. It looked old--had he known Cameron for long? Did that imply that Cameron had been a hades agent for as old as this scar looked? That was... well, that was bad news. The scourge was dangerous, made only moreso for intelligent trainers teaching them temperance.
Thoughtfully, as if lost in a dream, she said, "I don't know if I believe you. I really don't."
Barely louder than a whisper, she said, "But I know I don't trust you."
Neo pulled back her hand, balled it into a fist, and swung her arm forward to clock him in the jaw over the scar.
iskander clammed up. he had a sibling, a brother to be exact, but he didn't like thinking about him. he still had his face in the locket he had somewhere in one of his pockets, and he wasn't sure why he was still carrying it around with him, either. his eyes were focused on the patch of grass even as neo whispered words dangerous to his well-being; even if she didn't trust him, or didn't believe him, he didn't care.
he'd given her a potion, that was the extent of his kindness. he'd also let her swung her fist against his jaw; it didn't really push him over, but he could feel it. it hurt, and as he ran his hand over it, iskander figured that the scar wasn't going to burst open and bleed again, nor was he going to get another one in the near future. he still felt fine, albeit a little dazed.
trust was a small issue to iskander, really. as long as people got along with each other, he figured he could continue living in the world. the scourge was pretty much forcing that decree on everyone -- finally, some changes.
Ow, he said. "Ow," she said, wringing and shaking out her hand, which probably felt worse than Iskander's face did. She said it again, "Ow! What's your face made of? Steel plating?"
He seemed unchanged, as questionably kind as ever, and that upset her. It was unreasonable. She was unreasonable--or he was unreasonable, Neo wasn't sure which. She had hit him. You're supposed to respond to that sort of thing. She felt ineffective. She hated feeling ineffective.
Neo raised her fist to hit him again, but between the rapid bruising in her fingers and the fact that she suspected he'd just take another blow stopped her short. She lowered her hand, cursed, fuck this, turned away, clutched her aching hand.
She wondered if he'd act now with her back turned.
Over her shoulder she spoke again, "You never answered." Her voice wavered with something that was very definitely emotion. She took a deep breath, conquered the beating of her heart and the clench in her jaw. The next time she spoke, her voice was flat, neither warm nor cold.
"How do you know so much? I don't imagine Cameron sat you down and talked about her life choices with you over tea."
iskander continued to sit on the ground; he wasn't sure if he should act surprised by the fact that neo had just punched him in the face, or impressed that she had actually managed to punch him in the face. he watched her wring her hand though, and out of concern, blurted out, "i'm sorry ... you hit my jaw, and that's made from bone." he wondered if he should say any more, but he felt like it would only aggravate the situation.
he blinked as she turned away, and wondered briefly if she was about to leave. or close the distance again for another punch, but this time, he was ready. whether he'd punch back or not, he already knew the answer -- no. he wouldn't hit someone else, ever. "oh, that," he said, gritting his teeth and sighing. cameron hadn't told him anything willingly; most of the time he had been at the mercy of her punches while she revealed everything, whether she knew it or not.
"for everything she told me, she gave me a punch," he admitted, and it took effort to do so. by now, he was already staring at the grass, at the ground; he couldn't look neo in the back, much less in the eye. "that scar's not the worse of it," he said, clutching his upper arm involuntarily, his composure shaken. he didn't know if it was from thinking of her next punch, or from the fact that he really dreaded cameron's blows.
since when did he know anything? other than things from books, journals and knowledgeable reading materials, he knew nothing of the world, other than the promise the scourge made to him when they first made contact with him.
She looked at him as if there were something wrong with him, which in her book there already was, on account of him looking like J and behaving nothing like J.
"Are you apologizing for being made of bones?" she asked, unable to swallow down her own disbelief.
She couldn't tell if he was telling the truth or lying or if he believed his own lies. It could be anything. He could be a master liar, a madman, or completely honest. It didn't really matter in the end. The only thing they'd exchanged here was words (there was no exchange of blows on account of that being a one-sided thing). They were both all talk. Perhaps he found her equally untrustworthy--but.
But she didn't think he could fake that fear, involuntary and inevitable like an aftershock.
Also a strange look on J's face.
Neo walked away in disgust. She made it all of about a meter and a half before turning around again--she realized she was doing this a lot--and returning to Iskander's side. He was still on the ground.
She offered him a hand. "You're pathetic. Get up," she deadpanned. "I can't hit you again in good conscience if you're still on the ground."
no, no. he wasn't apologizing for being made of bones, he was apologizing for having hurt her badly, or so it would seem from the way she cradled her hand. iskander shook his head, and said nothing. he didn't know if he wanted to take her hand, either, because he was certain that she might attempt something else on him again.
what he was sure of wanting to do though, was spray some potion on her hand and see if it healed just like a pokémon's. that would be interesting to see, wouldn't it? he took out a soda pop from his suit, and offered it to neo in a gesture of goodwill, or something along those lines. once he made sure that she took it, he got up on his own, and moved a distance away from her. iskander still glanced at her, but alternated his gaze between the ground and the researcher.
"don't hit me again," said the agent, flinching slightly at the word 'hit', "i don't want to see you hurt."
She looked at the soda pop. Unhappily, and perhaps a bit petulantly, she took it because she needed it. Nevertheless, she said, "You can't just keep giving me stuff in hopes that I'll stop hitting you. That's now how this works."
What she said didn't quite line up to what she did, because Neo did not hit him again. Fumbling awkwardly, because one of her hands was mostly unusable at the moment, she popped open the soda and took a sip. It was... admittedly very refreshing, so much so that she felt the pain dulling already.
"Pokemon hurt themselves in confusion all the time," she said with a shrug. "Maybe I do too. It's my business if I want to hurt myself, if I think it's worth it."
She was silent for a particularly long moment. "Why did--" Neo stopped, the went out on a limb, "Why does Cameron hit you?"
iskander stared at his dress shoes in the hopes that neo would stop asking him questions and saying things that made more sense than anyone ever had said to him. he shuffled in his shoes, shoulders slumped, eyes unmoving. "i know," he said, "i know i can't keep giving people things to make them stop, but at least they stop for a while, and it makes me feel better for a bit as well."
the agent was glad to note that she had drank the soda pop, and found it in herself to continue the conversation without so much as a threat towards hitting him. slowly, iskander glanced up, but he was still wary of neo's movements. his heart beat in his chest a little too quickly for his liking; iskander swallowed, and adjusted his coat. "please don't hurt yourself," he said, this time in a gentle tone, "even when you're confused, don't. find some other way to let the confusion pass."
iskander readied himself for another punch when neo went silent, and let out a breath he had no idea he had been holding in when she spoke. "she only hit me once, but when she did, it was really bad," said the agent, finding no reason to lie to neo at all, "sometimes, you don't need a reason to hurt, or to hit people.
"maybe she was just confused then, and had to take it out on someone," he finished, and took a step away from neo.
"Did you know, humans are pack creatures. We are hardwired to live together in a group, peaceably. Together, we are more than the sum of our parts." She laid her hand flat, tested each bone and knuckle for breaks and bruises, not making eye contact with Iskander.
"I don't trust you. That means I find you threatening--" although looking at him now was like looking at a scared rabbit, and that made her feel a little silly, "therefore, I hit you. I had a reason." No one said it was a good reason.
Neo couldn't tell if he meant what he said, or if he really meant to say please don't hurt me. The latter would've been her choice of words, if she were in his position. She didn't think she'd ever be likely to be in his position though. She'd have fled by now, for one.
She looked to him, saw that he wasn't comfortable. He seemed unflappable earlier, but now it wasn't her stepping away. The reversal was awkward for her. Curious but not sounding it, she asked, "Are you afraid of me?"
yes, he was aware of this. humans as a species were never too intelligent, too; the other regions had had their fair share of evil organizations seeking to achieve their plans and secret wish of taking over the world, and iskander hadn't been able to see peace anywhere in the words 'world domination'. for one, there wasn't even a 'p' in the entire phrase, and that immediately ruled out any sort of hope at creating peace between people of the same species.
he didn't know if they really were more than the what met the eye, though. no one had proved good enough to take down all the scourge yet, and as if disappointed in humans interacting with normal pokémon, they had offered a partnership to a select few. 'scourge partnership' -- iskander saw the words 'peace' and 'our', and that certainly was an achievement for the agents and hadean species. there was peace, and there was a group of people; maybe it was just them, though, but iskander didn't want to think about that yet.
it didn't matter if neo had a reason for hitting him. the end result was still the same; he had still been hit, and even though it hadn't hurt physically, mentally, it did. being struck had a certain effect on someone, and it manifested more severely in iskander. he didn't nod at her question, though, and instead stood where he was, quite still and unmoving.
his tone flickered between gentle and normal as he found his reply to her question. "if i'm afraid, and find you threatening," he forced his head up as he spoke, to look at neo, "can i hit you, just like you did to me? i'd have a reason, but as you can see, it's not a very good reason." iskander's hands were still by his side, quite plainly flat against his legs and not balled into fists. he had no intention of striking neo.
"there's never a good reason to hit someone," iskander murmured, reiterating his last point. even if he was scared, even if it was in self-defence.
"I expected you to hit me back. So, yes, you could." It would've been hypocritical of her to claim otherwise. It would've been stupid of her to not expect a reaction in any case. She supposed this counted as a reaction.
Well, it wasn't the one she expected. "Would you like to? I wouldn't hold it against you."
She was okay with violence, physical or otherwise. 'Okay' meaning that it happens, and she expected it to happen, and it was a quantifiable reaction that Neo could reliably anticipate. Except apparently not that reliably, not with Iskander. This was uncharted territory here. She didn't know what would happen from here; she couldn't even guess what would happen from here. It made her feel blind.
She wished he'd had struck back or at least had a temper of some sort. Then she'd know what to do.
"You said you're re-applying to Eos. How do you intend on helping anybody without violence? Hand out soda pops for the rest of our very short lives? Let someone else fight for you? If you haven't noticed, there's a scourge on the loose, and they're killing us all. I don't think we can negotiate. We're doomed unless we put on our violence hats.
"We are together, humanity," she said quietly, not sure if she was trying to convince herself moreso than Iskander. "We are only as good as the worst of us. Someone has to rely on violence for protection in the end. The rest of us... can only be blamed for not helping, for hiding."
Neo shut up. What the hell was she talking about? She turned away, hid a grimace of confusion and some other blend of emotion that she didn't want to deal with--didn't want anyone to see. "If you're afraid, you have to do something about it."
See? There. That was a fact. That is a fact. Neo likes facts.
iskander still had no intention of striking neo in any way; not even after being invited to, not even after the spiel that she said about him reapplying for eos, not even after the comment about humanity, helping and hiding or something. iskander didn't want to do anything if he was afraid, though; some part of him wanted someone to rescue him at some point, but he'd eventually given up hope and moved on with a smile.
the agent moved closer to neo as he closed the distance between the two of them; he'd saw something different on her face just now, something quiet about her face that said she might have been a little unsure of what she was saying. he blinked, and stopped three steps away from her, and tried to smile through the strange hesitances that neo had forced into his mind.
he reached out a hand, took hers, and contacted their c-gears to exchange their numbers. "tell me what i can do, then," said iskander, releasing her hand and allowing it to fall back to where it once was. he glanced at her, suddenly very small in his suit, and there was no sign of the collected, controlled man from before.
